HOT TOPICS:

Tenn. to decide fate of 3 justices

By Alan Blinder and Jonathan WeismanNew York Times

Posted:
08/07/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated:
08/07/2014 09:32:03 PM CDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Capping a campaign that emerged as an early test for conservative groups pursuing shake-ups of the courts across the country, Tennessee voters decided Thursday whether to oust three members of the state Supreme Court whose work has been criticized as incongruent with the state's rightward tilt.

Participants in Tennessee's Republican primary are also choosing a nominee for U.S. Senate from a field that includes Sen. Lamar Alexander and state Rep. Joe Carr, who has won tea party support.

The races energized Tennessee's August primary, which is typically a relaxed round of balloting. Voters saw and heard a torrent of television and radio advertisements, and many received baskets of direct mail.

But turnout appeared light in Nashville, the state capital, although officials said more than 564,000 people statewide submitted their ballots during Tennessee's early voting period, which ended Saturday.

Despite their placement near the end of the ballot, the judicial races seized much of the local political spotlight in the weeks leading to Election Day. Voters are being asked whether they want to retain or replace three justices: Cornelia Clark, Sharon Lee and Gary Wade, the state's chief justice. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, named all three to the Supreme Court when he was governor, from 2003 to 2011. The justices are subject to intermittent retention votes, and only one has been ousted in 20 years.

Advertisement

But the three justices on the ballot Thursday were targeted by conservative groups that contend that the current court is "the most liberal place in Tennessee." They say that the justices failed to protect the rights of crime victims, alienated business interests and implicitly supported the Affordable Care Act, the health care law championed by President Barack Obama.

The justices spent many weeks campaigning and raised more than $1 million to protect their seats on the court. But their critics have also mounted a fierce effort, backed by a formidable blend of funds from within the state -- a political action committee tied to Tennessee's lieutenant governor, a Republican, contributed at least $425,000 -- and elsewhere. The Republican State Leadership Committee and Americans for Prosperity, which is aligned with the billionaires Charles and David Koch, are among the outside groups that have invested in the race.

"I'm sorry to see this happening," Bredesen said in an interview Thursday. "The illness and whatever that has affected Washington is unfortunately starting to spread to other places."

Conservative groups have defended their efforts as educational and say that retention elections are supposed to hold members of the judiciary accountable to the public.

Opponents of the justices have said that defeating one would be a significant victory because it would allow the current governor, Bill Haslam, a Republican, to name his third appointee to the state Supreme Court, presumably shifting the balance of power on the five-member court toward Republicans.

The Senate contest is the latest in a series of primaries featuring a veteran Republican incumbent and a tea party challenger.